Young Franklin softball team making noise

<p>Franklin softball hadn’t enjoyed a winning season since the current freshmen were in fourth grade, so the team’s lack of confidence coming into this spring was understandable.</p><p>As the Grizzly Cubs have started to find success, that confidence has steadily grown — but first-year coach Kilah Dickey is still looking for a little more.</p><p>&quot;We’re still working on building the confidence with the girls,&quot; Dickey said. &quot;I think we can be good. We’re working on mindset and convincing ourselves how good we can be.&quot;</p><p>The Grizzly Cubs were just 9-15 a year ago, but they showed flashes of their potential during a late five-game winning streak that included an upset of then-unbeaten and No. 1 Center Grove last May in the semifinal round of the Johnson County tournament.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>This year’s squad has built on that momentum. At 11-3, Franklin has already posted its highest win total since 2014, and it heads into this week’s home-and-home series with Martinsville still very much in the Mid-State Conference title hunt. Following a sweep of a strong Mooresville club last week, the Grizzly Cubs are 7-1 in league play.</p><p>It all starts with sophomore Izzy Harrison, who has been a force both in the pitching circle and at the plate. The University of Kentucky commit is 8-0 with a 0.65 earned-run average this season with 125 strikeouts against 21 walks in 65 innings of work.</p><p>Harrison’s ERA is less than half what it was a year ago, in no small part because of the defensive improvements that have been made behind her. Franklin’s fielding percentage has jumped all the way up from .897 to .942, with the team committing just 19 errors in 329 chances so far.</p><p>Dickey notes that while success in high school softball is still highly dependent on pitching, defense has become much more important since the distance between the rubber and home plate was moved back from 40 to 43 feet in 2010.</p><p>&quot;While she dominates, we still have to have our field,&quot; the coach said. &quot;Izzy’s awesome. She really does a lot of work for us, and she works as hard as she can. But she can’t do it without her field and her team.&quot;</p><p>The Grizzly Cubs came into the season with just six varsity regulars returning, but Dickey has been able to plug some key holes up the middle with freshmen. Second baseman Maddie Hedges, shortstop Erin Lee and center fielder Morgan Carter have risen to the occasion and blended seamlessly with the veterans, making just five errors in 73 chances.</p><p>Offensively, Franklin has gotten contributions from all over the place. Harrison leads the team with a .477 batting average and 14 runs scored, junior Baylee Parker is hitting .465 with 10 runs and 10 RBIs and Hedges (.432) has knocked in a team-best 13 runs.</p><p>Junior Baylee Parker is batting a team-high .500, Harrison (.477) has scored 14 runs and Hedges (.432) leads the squad with 13 RBIs. </p><p>Junior Emma Rutan, who has solidified herself as the Grizzly Cubs’ starting catcher, believes that the team is much more tightly-knit than in the past, and those bonds have contributed to the turnaround.</p><p>&quot;I feel like our team has a lot more camaraderie, so that helps with our success on the field,&quot; Rutan said. &quot;We know how we play, how to bring each other up, and I think that really helps. If one of us is down, we can bring them up.&quot;</p><p>Should Franklin win out against the Artesians this week and Greenwood next week, a possible league championship series against the league leader, reigning Class 4A state champion Decatur Central, looms in mid-May. There are also potential county and sectional matchups ahead with local juggernaut Center Grove.</p><p>Even if her squad’s confidence level isn’t all the way up to where she wants it to be, Dickey firmly believes that Franklin is capable of beating any of those powerhouse teams on a given day.</p><p>&quot;At this point, I do,&quot; she said. &quot;As long as we have our batting going and we have Izzy on the mound, I think we can beat a lot of teams — as long as they have their mindset right.</p><p>&quot;We want to win every little play, every at-bat, every single detail, so we can win the big picture.&quot;</p>